1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices that are placed under heavy objects to assist in the pulling of those heavy objects along the floor from one position to another.
2. Prior Art Statement
Many objects in modern life are either too heavy or too cumbersome to be lifted and moved by the average person. However, it is often desirable to move such objects. For example, many tables and sofas are too large and heavy to be lifted by a person. However, many people periodically move such pieces of furniture to either redecorate or to clean the area below and behind such furniture.
To address this problem, slide pads have been developed. Slide pads are plastic pads that have very smooth base surfaces. The slide pads are placed under the legs of a sofa, chair or other heavy piece of furniture. When a person wants to move the heavy piece of furniture, that person merely pulls the furniture along the floor. The presence of the slide pads under the legs of the furniture prevents the legs of the furniture from scratching the floor or binding on carpeting. Furthermore, the smooth base of the glide pads has a low coefficient of friction. Consequently, the presence of the slide pads under the furniture greatly reduces the amount of effort needed to slide the furniture from point-to-point along the floor.
Prior art slide pads are most commonly saucer shaped. They are placed under the leg of a piece of furniture and remain in place due to the friction between the furniture and the top of the slide pad as the slide pad bears the weight of the furniture. Nothing physically attaches the slide pads to the furniture they support.
Painters, cleaners, maintenance personnel and the like often use A-frame stepladders to reach high points in a room. In office buildings, it is not unusual for a cleaner or maintenance worker to move a stepladder from place-to-place throughout an entire working shift. As is often the case, printers, cleaners and maintenance personal keep buckets, brushes and tools at the top of the ladder so that these items can be easily accessed by a person standing near the top of the ladder. Each time the ladder must be moved, a person must carry the equipment down from the top of the ladder, lift the ladder, carry it to its new position and carry the equipment back to the top of the ladder. Accordingly, it is not uncommon for a painter or a cleaner to spend just as much time moving a ladder from point-to-point as they spend painting or cleaning atop the ladder.
Due to the elongated structure of A-frame ladders, they typically do not slide well along floors. Rather, when pushed or pulled, some of the ladder legs inevitably stick to the floor while others move. This causes the ladder to shudder and jerk as it is pushed or pulled along a surface. Such a moving dynamic makes it impractical to keep a bucket or tools on the ladder as the ladder is being moved, since the jerky movement of the ladder will cause the contents of the bucket to splash or cause tools to fall. A person, therefore, has little choice but to remove all equipment from the ladder and physically carry the ladder from point-to-point.
In the prior art, devices have been made that are intended to improve the ease at which a ladder can be moved. Many such devices include the use of wheeled stands, wherein the ladders are set upon the wheeled stands. The wheeled stands are then rolled from point-to-point, thereby moving the ladder between those points. The use of wheeled stands is cumbersome and expensive. It also detracts from the safety of the ladder in that the ladder is now supported by wheels and can inadvertently move out from a person leaning on the ladder.
Traditional slide pads, such as those used for furniture do not work well on ladders. First, ladders are often lifted. Since traditional slide pads are not attached to the legs of a ladder, the slide pads detach from the ladder every time it is lifted. Furthermore, ladders are moved after a person climbs down from the ladder. As such, if traditional slide pads are used, only the weight of the ladder presses against the top of the slide pads. Ladders are typically very light in weight. The frictional force created between the legs of the ladder and traditional slide pads is often insufficient to keep traditional slide pads in place as the ladder is pulled across the floor. The slide pads, therefore, slide out from under the ladder and the ladder again must be carried from point-to-point.
A need therefore exists for an improved slide pad device that can be physically attached to the feet of a ladder, thereby making the ladder easy to slide from point-to-point along a floor. This need is met by the present invention as described and claimed below.